SEEKING TUTOR FEEDBACK
Following the successful pilot of the Self-Observation process in WQ 2025, we continue to offer this option to tutors for your quarterly reflections. We also welcome your feedback on the process and/or reflection form to help us further refine it! Please Slack Erin with any suggestions or questions.
About Self-Observations
- We understand that doing the same reflection on your tutoring in synchronous and asynchronous appointments each and every quarter you work at the The Writing Center can feel repetitive; we hope the self-observation and accompanying reflection form proves to be a valuable new option to help you to continue to grow as a tutor by examining and articulating your approach to tutoring.
- The Self-Observation Reflection Form, adapted from the Collaborative Observations reflection form, asks you to look closely at a single appointment and consider in detail how you enact Writing Center best practices in that particular appointment.
- If you would like to try a different approach to reflecting on your tutoring practices, you may complete a self-observation and reflection on either a synchronous or asynchronous appointment (or both) for your quarterly professional development ePortfolio.
- Each quarter, you are required to complete a reflection about synchronous tutoring modalities (F2F and ORT) and a reflection about asynchronous (written feedback). You choose if you want to complete the conventional
Tutoring Reflections for both synchronous and asynchronous, complete a 
Self-Observation reflection form (see below) for both synchronous and asynchronous, or complete a conventional tutoring reflection for one modality and a self-observation reflection form for the other.
- Self-observations are a meaningful opportunity to consider how your current practices are aligned with our core values and beliefs identify specific ways to affirm or revise your practices as you continue to grow as a tutor.
Specific Instructions
- Identify an appointment you will use for self-observation. It can be a synchronous or asynchronous appointment, or one of each. You might decide to complete a self-observation of a particular modality before or after an appointment.
Appointments needn’t be particularly ideal or especially challenging though those can be meaningful appointments to think more deeply about. Any appointment can be meaningful for a self-observation as it’s the practice of looking deeply and reflecting that will draw out rich insights.
2. Plan to complete your reflection form.
Reflection may be most valuable when the appointment details are fresh in your mind, especially for a synchronous appointment. Or, you might prefer to revisit an appointment after a bit of time; particularly with asynchronous appointments, you may be able to return to your letter and marginal comments with fresh eyes and still have sufficient recollection of the appointment for meaningful reflection.
- If you have available time in your shift after the appointment, we encourage you to block off 30 minutes to complete the reflection form.
- If you do not have available time in your shift after the appointment to complete your reflection, we suggest blocking off time on your schedule during your next shift.
- Reflect on the appointment and fill out the form adapted from our collaborative observation forms. As a reminder, The Collaborative Observations Reflection Form is adapted from a reflective tool by Hall (2017) in his book Around the Texts of Writing Center Work: An Inquiry-based Approach to Tutor Education. While reflecting, maintain a tone of descriptive accuracy and respect for yourself and the writer involved.
Reflection Form
Self-Observation Reflection Form
Name: Current Date: Quarter: Appointment Date: Appointment Time: Writer name: Appointment type: The following are core practices for effective tutoring that have been identified by the Writing Center. Write notes about if and how each practice is utilized i...
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pta2m7z7a-kZYb9EBxieezgpMDxZGeGo8dm8CPtwCis/edit?usp=sharing
- Access the form and make a copy of it.
- Complete the form and save it for you to access later.
- Add your completed form to your quarterly eportfolio in Digication.
- Delete the existing tutoring reflection prompts/text on the Synchronous and/or Asynchronous page.
- Upload your form on the page corresponding to the modality of your reflection.
Sample Self-Observation Reflection
Self-ObservationReflectionForm_ClaudiaN.pdf
103.2KB